Chapter 2 ~ The Temple of Silver and Gold
It was a sunny morning when Hecate, Goddess of Magic and Crossroads walked along the streets of Elis. Elis was one of the more obscure city-states at the time and was located west of Arcadia. A light sea breeze from the northwestern corner of the Peloponnese filled the air. Hidden from the eyes of the people by the Mist, her own creation, the black-haired goddess walked between the market stalls where the merchants offered their wares and between the stables with the world-famous stallions of Elis, prized for their endurance and strength.
Her bright violet eyes were focused on the destination of today's excursion to this mortal city: The temple hill where a temple dedicated to Selene and Helios had recently been constructed. The work on the temple was almost finished and Selene had wanted to reward the mortals especially, since Elis was one of the few cities that dedicated a temple to her. They had already been the first to worship her at all, and in return Selene had blessed the city with some of the best horses in the world.
There was no shortage of temples to Zeus and the rest of the Olympian Council throughout Greece, but Selene appreciated the few places where mortals prayed to her. Therefore, together with Helios, to whom the temple was also dedicated, she had considered blessing the temple itself. During the day, the light of the sun with the blessing of Helios should make the temple shine and bathe it in a golden glow that gave a feeling of warmth to those who prayed. At night, on the other hand, Selene would ensure that the temple was bathed in silver moonlight, giving all who entered it a sense of security and helping them find their way in the dark night.
The only problem with this plan was that the two siblings, who drove their chariots across the sky every day and night, had no idea how to do it. They were not able to bind the blessing permanently to the stones of the temple and almost blew up the whole temple, because Helios, in one of his attempts, based on a suggestion from a person who had no idea how the divine magic worked, simply cast more energy into the blessing. The result was the collapse of some parts of the temple, which is why the mortal inhabitants of the city had to reconstruct it and prolong the construction work, and his extremely angry sister, who first yelled at him for several minutes and then asked through whom he had gotten the stupid idea to bless the temple with the force of a solar explosion.
Helios had vehemently refused to tell her the name of his little helper, but Selene already had her own suspicions, even if she couldn't prove them. Instead, she had asked her good friend and, just like her and Helios, technically more Titan than goddess, Hecate, to take a look and help her bless the temple.
And that brings us back to the reason why Hecate climbed the steps leading up to the temple, where she was already eagerly awaited by Selene. Next to her stood Helios, dressed in a golden robe and a radiant smile on his lips. Selene was similar to Hecate dressed in a relatively short chiton, because the day was quite warm. According to her domain, it was silver colored, while Hecate's chiton was purple, decorated with some elegant black lines.
"It's so good to see you, Hecate." said Selene smiling and hugging her longtime friend.
"It's nice to see you too, Selene." replied Hecate smiling and nodding to Helios.
"Always a pleasure, my dear." said the Sun God.
"So," said Hecate, clapping and rubbing her hands together "what exactly is the problem with your temple?"
Selene and Helios began to explain the problem to her and the desired results while Hecate listened to them attentively. She frowned and facepalmed when she heard about Helios' little bombing of the temple and shook her head.
"The amount of energy is not the problem. It's more about the fine tuning in this case. As Olympian gods, this blessing of the temple would be relatively easy, but even though we three are normally called gods, we are Titans at our core. We are older and our type of divine magic is not as finely tuned as that of the Olympians. Our magic is harder to control. It is more explosive and has more raw power trying to break out. Such a special blessing requires more knowledge and delicate work from us than a mere wave of the hand.
Selene and Helios nodded in understanding. "And how exactly are we going to do this?" asked Helios a little impatiently, but hopefully.
"Don't worry, you have me for that. I'm the expert in magic," Hecate said and began to explain as she walked towards the temple. "To keep the blessing in the temple, the magic must be bound to the stones. The best way to do that is to use some runes."
She stopped at the pillars that formed the entrance to the temple and turned to Helios.
"I need a hair from each of you for this," she said, and unceremoniously plucked a tuft of Helios' blond hair without waiting for his consent. "Ouch, by Rhea, woman! Why don't you warn me next time?" Hecate ignored his complaints, but couldn't help a slight smirk. She held out a hand expectantly to Selene, who carefully plucked out a single dark brown hair and handed it to her.
Hecate nodded contentedly and took the hair in her hand like a brush and began to draw various intricate symbols on one of the temple's pillars. As if the hair was dipped in magic paint, it left a silvery trace. Hecate repeated the process with one of Helio's hairs, after picking out the longest from the tuft of 20 hairs she had pulled out. As expected from him it left behind a trail of gold.
"Done. Now work your blessing into the symbols first, and then into the whole temple," Hecate instructed them, taking a few steps back and leaning against one of the wooden scaffolds that had been attached to the temple by the builders. Selene and Helios began, and a brilliant beam of light streamed from their hands into the runes, while the two siblings murmured soft words. After a few minutes the process was finished and the result was visible. One column seemed to be covered with gold, while the other shimmered silver. A shudder suddenly seemed to run through the temple, until suddenly a golden glow surrounded the temple stones and bathed even the interior in light, as if the sun chariot, which was currently being pulled across the sky by the four flaming horses of Helios by themselves, was parked in the middle of the temple.
"Ha! It worked! Thank you so much, Hecate!" cheered Selene happily, while around her the mortals burst into amazement and looked up at the sun with delighted faces, unknowing that the gods they had to thank where located right next to them, hidden from their eyes with a layer of Mist by choice. Until suddenly, due to the temple stones charged with energy, the shudder briefly intensified before the magic settled down in the stones, which, however, was enough to make a silvery metal rod meant for decoration fall from the high scaffolding. And exactly to where Hecate was standing at the moment.
"Be patient, young Perseus." said Chiron, blocking a sword strike from the fifteen-year-old boy in front of him.
"It's Percy, old man!" Percy shouted back, but listened to the wise centaur's words and switched to a defensive stance, holding his blade protectively in front of his body, waiting for the next attack to come.
It was not a special blade, just a simple leaf-shaped xiphos, not even made of celestial bronze. But this training fight was all about tactics and stances anyway, so the blade material hadn't mattered.
Chiron struck quickly and with force, but Percy saw the blow coming and executed a counterattack designed to disarm the opponent by twisting his blade in a certain way. What Percy didn't expect, however, was Chiron countering Percy's counter and sending his sword flying out of his hand. Percy quickly rolled to the side and tried to pick up his sword from the ground, but was stopped from doing so by Chiron's hooved foot, which stood on the sword and kept it on the ground. Percy sighed as he felt Chiron's blade against his neck and muttered "I yield."
"You have much to learn, young Percy." said Chiron with a warm smile, extending a hand for Percy to help him up. "That's what I have you for!" said Percy with a sarcastic smirk and accepted his mentor's hand. Four years ago, his mother Selene had introduced him to Chiron so that the young wolf could learn the art of sword fighting from him. Yes you have heard correctly. Percy considered Selene his mother, since it was her who had raised him.
Percy had often spent his childhood in one of her few temples when the two of them were not traveling together on the moon chariot, an activity Percy enjoyed up to this day. From time to time, his uncle Helios had come by and looked after Percy, but the sun god often had more work to do than his sister and remained just his uncle, whom Percy saw from time to time. Percy stretched his aching muscles and reached for a waterskin.
He was quite tall for his age and had pronounced muscles, those of a fighter, and outdid already mortal adult men many times over in speed and endurance, but lacked a little bit behind in strength. He was dressed in a simple green tunic with the usual sandals on his feet. A mop of untamed thick black hair adorned his head, but his most striking feature was his eyes. Like little orbs of molten silver, they pierced the surroundings intently.
"But in my other form I would have defeated you, my dear master," Percy said with a grin as he picked up the sword and took it to a rack where he stowed it. They were in a clearing in the forest, not far from the city walls.
"Perhaps. You are indeed stronger and faster in your wolf form," Chiron said, stroking his beard with one hand as he looked at his student. Normally, Chiron only trained demigods to protect them against monsters and did not take on someone who was technically a monster himself. However, this of course technically applied to Chiron too, and it wasn't every day that the Goddess of the Moon and her brother showed up and asked him to train an otherwise very fun-loving eleven year old.
After a brief examination of Percy's character, Chiron had accepted the silver-eyed boy as his student and had proceeded to teach him everything he knew about fighting and hunting for the following four years. After a few months Percy had shown to have a great talent with the sword and turned out to be one of his most promising students of all time. While he couldn't match someone like Herakles in terms of pure strength because of his young age and still developing body, his wolfish side gave in endurance that surpassed anything that Chiron had ever seen, not considering any gods, obviously. But even then, it wouldn't be quite as easy as one might think to kill Percy, since his wolfish side gave him another rather unfair advantage.
"Still, you need to be prepared for any kind of fighting style. I hope you know that you are not invincible and, for example, there is always the possibility of capture. And your abilities won't help you if you die of starvation, my boy. Therefore, you must not slack in your training." Chiron advised Percy, who had now finished putting away the weapons.
"Of course. I understand, Chiron." said Percy, and in keeping with the theme, his stomach grumbled like a hundred hungry wolves. Percy's cheeks turned red and Chiron laughed and patted Percy on the shoulder.
"Looks like it's time for you to return, my boy. I won't see you for another two weeks, because I have to go to a family reunion. Shouldn't take long, but the celebrations of my relatives often get a bit... out of control." Chiron mumbled the last bit.
"The party ponies huh? Where do you meet?" asked Percy with a grin, thinking of Chiron's tales of huge amounts of alcohol at the centaurs' parties.
"Laconia, so not too far from here. Get home safe, Percy." said Chiron, shouldering his bow.
"Have fun with your relatives." said Percy grinning goodbye before running through the trees towards the city, more precisely towards the temple hill. A run turned into a sprint until Percy jumped over a log lying on the ground and his body changed in the air. His clothes and everything he wore melted into his skin, while his face elongated into a snout and a mouth full of fangs. Although his teeth were already strikingly long and pointed in human form, in this guise they could inspire real fear. His fingers grew into paws with sharp dark claws while jet black fur grew all over his body. His eyes remain the same and kept their sharp silver gaze. Two tails sprouted at the end and the transformation was complete in an instant. Percy landed on silent and swift paws and ran through the undergrowth at breakneck speed towards the city of Elis.
After a short time, the silver-eyed wolf reached the gates of the city, where the two guards posted at the city gates did not even try to stop him. They knew they would never be able to catch him and for the inhabitants of Elis it had become a daily routine to see the two-tailed wolf, which already exceeded the size of a full-grown normal wolf by about a third, running through the streets of the city.
The children were fascinated by the unusual animal and the adults had quickly learned that the wolf did not harm anyone. That was another point Percy kept to himself: He never showed the transformation to the townspeople. When he was in human form, he was just one of the many children of the city and no one paid much attention to him while he was in the Temple of Silver and Gold.
The wolf's form, however, was well known to everyone, and after Percy was wrapped and glowed in Selene's brilliant moonlight like a wolfish lighthouse before their eyes, no priest had ever tried to shoo him out of the temple. Instead, he was considered a blessing from the goddess herself and given his own area next to a statue of his mother in the temple. As it turned out, those, if needed overly cute looking, silver eyes made for a lot of free meals and fur petting from the mortals while he made himself comfortable on a pillow.
So it becomes clear that Percy spent much of his time in his wolf form because of the many benefits it brought. Every now and then he could also use it to scare one of the visitors from outside the city, which always brought a laugh to him and the people of the city. This was also another detail that Percy did not reveal to mortals. He could also speak and laugh in the form of a wolf, even if his lips were no longer those of a human. So far, no words of his existence had reached the lands outside Elis, and Percy wanted to keep it that way if possible. Hardly anyone believed the stories of the travelers, and so no one had ever traveled to the city just to see him.
In the meantime, Percy had arrived at the temple hill, where for once no one paid attention to him, but everyone looked at the now golden shining temple.
"Mother and Uncle Helios must have found a solution," Percy thought and continued his way towards the entrance, near which he could make out the aforementioned deities through the Mist, until his sensitive ears detected a metallic sound.
He looked up and gassed as he saw the silver decorated metal bar roll over the edge of the scaffolding, right where a woman, strikingly pretty in Percy's eyes, was standing. He didn't think for a second before he broke into a sprint and ran toward her. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw him, but instantly widened even more when he turned back into a human before colliding with her and tackling her to the side.
The people around her were fortunately distracted by the glow of the temple, and Hecate was also shrouded in Mist, so no one noticed the transformation.
With an "OOF" Percy landed on the ground above Hecate, and she stared at him with a mixture of confusion and anger until her eyes darted over his shoulders and widened as she caught sight of the falling pole. The silvery metal bar slammed down on Percy's shoulder from a height of ten feet, eliciting another "OOF" from him, but amazingly, the metal did not pierce him.
"What? Who?..." Muttered Hecate as Percy helped her up. As an immortal, she could never have seriously been injured the by the metal bar, of course, but Hecate was still grateful that she had been spared the experience by the exceedingly well-built young man before her.
"Percy!" cried out Selene, running over to them with Helios.
"Don't worry, mother. I'm fine. As always!" said Percy, grinning.
"Mother?" asked Hecate in shock as Helios made sure no one was really hurt. "You never told me you had a child lately! And a werewolf at that, by the looks of it." she added, not condescending or disgusted, but rather interested, eyeing Percy curiously.
"Well, technically, he's not my biological son either. I sort of adopted him, Hecate." murmured Selene as Percy's head snapped up.
"Please forgive me for pushing you aside. I didn't realize who you were, Lady Hecate." said Percy, bowing his head. Believe or not, he still had manners and this goddess didn't seem to bad.
"Don't worry about it. I should be thanking you rather, my savior," Hecate said teasingly "And no need for that formality, call me Hecate!" she added.
"Well, I'm Percy. Nice to meet you!" said Percy, giving her his trademark grin as he held out a hand. Hecate accepted it and shook it and Percy had to suppress a blush when he touched her soft skin.
"Who are your birth parents then?" asked Hecate rather bluntly.
"Don't know for sure," Percy replied, shrugging his shoulders. "But we have our suspicions, because of the color of my eyes." He had long ago accepted the fact, that Selene wasn't his actual birth mother and she had never kept the truth from him.
Hecate looked deep into his eyes, and again Percy had to keep his cheeks from blushing until Hecate gasped loudly and muttered "Her? Hard to imagine, but there are stranger things."
Selene could only nod and then said "As for the father, we can't say that much, except that he may have something to do with the wolfish side."
"But that is a mystery to me. As a werewolf, the silver covered metal bar should have injured you!" mused Hecate, looking to Percy for an answer, but he just scratched the back of his head in perplexity.
"We haven't found anything yet that can seriously hurt me." He admitted, and Hecate's eyes grew as big as plates. "By the gods! Please, let me examine you. With my magic, I may be able to determine the cause or even your parents for sure! I've never seen anything like it!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"Well, Chiron is on vacation right now, so I'm off for a while, and maybe I can learn something new." mused Percy and looked at his mother for confirmation.
Selene sighed, but she knew she could trust Hecate with her son and nodded. "Fine, but don't bring yourself into any unnecessary danger!" she said and Hecate smiled happily.
"Oh we are going to have so much fun! I have never examined a werewolf!"